Transcript Initializtion And Cleanup

Initialization & Cleanup
Dr. Ramzi Saifan
Slides adapted from Prof. Steven Roehrig
What Needs to be Initialized?
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A name for a student
A Socket needs to have its IP address set.
A Rectangle needs to have its dimensions and
location set.
Etc.
What If We Forget?
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Things don’t act the way we expect them to!
We only learn about problems at runtime.
Maybe we don’t find out until it’s too late.
Common culprits:
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references that lead nowhere
garbage values
How Does Java Help?
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Java initializes all class member variables to
zero whenever we create an object.
Java allows us to write constructors, special
methods, one of which will be called on
object creation.
Java refuses to create an object (compile
error) if we haven’t provided the right kind of
constructor.
Constructors
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A constructor method has the same name as the
class. It has no return type.
There can be many different constructors, each with
a distinct argument signature.
(This implies that overloaded methods are OK in
Java.)
You specify the particular constructor you want
when you create an object.
Example Constructor
class Book {
String title;
String author;
int numPages;
Book() { }
// default constructor
Book(String t, String a, int p) {
title = t;
author = a;
numPages = p;
}
Making Books
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Book uselessBook = new Book();
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title is an empty character sequence
author is an empty character sequence
numPages is 0
Book usefulBook = new Book(“The
TeXBook”, “Donald Knuth”, 483);
Method Overloading
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Methods with the same name, but different sets of
arguments.
A natural idea (Wash the car? Wash the shirt? Wash
the dog? …. etc)
Constructors can be overloaded; so can any function.
This is OK, but not recommended:
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void print(String s, int i)
void print(int i, String s)
You can’t overload on the return type alone.
Overloading With Primitives
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The compiler tries to find an exact match, but
will promote (“widen”) a value if necessary.
void doSomething(long l) { // whatever }
:
int i = 13;
doSomething(i);
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The compiler won’t narrow without an
explicit cast.
The Default Constructor
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“But, how come I didn’t have to write
constructors for the last homework?”
The compiler will write one for you!
But only if you haven’t written any
constructors at all (for this class).
A default constructor has no arguments (but
still has the same name as the class).
A Common Error
class Book {
String title; String author; int numPages;
Book(String t, String a, int n) {
title = t; author = a, numPages = n;
}
}
:
Book b = new Book();
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The compiler gives an error.
Normally, you always provide a default constructor
that does as much as possible (but not too much!).
The this Keyword
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If we want to “send a message” to an object, so in
Java we say
f.play(4);
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The compiler knows which object (f in this case) the
method is being called for.
The compiler sends this information to the method,
in the form of a reference to f.
The this Keyword (cont.)
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If necessary, we can get a reference to the
“current” object; it’s called this.
public class Leaf {
int i = 0;
Leaf increment() {
i++;
return this;
}
void print() { System.out.println(“i = ” + i); }
public static void main(String[] args) {
Leaf x = new Leaf();
x.increment().increment().increment().print();
}
}
Other Uses of this
public class Flower {
int petalCount = 0;
String s = new String(“null”);
Flower(int petals) { petalCount = petals; }
Flower(String ss) { s = ss; }
Flower(String s, int petals) {
this(petals);
//! this(s);
// can’t do it twice
this.s = s;
}
Flower() { this(“hi”, 47); }
// default constructor
}
So, What Is A static Method?
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It’s a method that belongs to the class but not
to any instance.
Static methods cannot use this keyword.
You can’t access non-static methods or
variable from within a static method. They
must use an object reference.
You can call a static method without knowing
any object of the class.
Cleanup
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Java has a garbage collector that reclaims
memory.
If an object “can’t be reached” by a chain of
references from a reference, it is garbage and
will be removed from memory.
Member Initialization
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Unitialized variables are a common source of
bugs.
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Using an unititialized variable in method gets a
compiler error.
Primitive data members in classes automatically
get initialized to “zero”.
Is the initialized value (zero) any better than a
“garbage value”?
Member Initialization (cont.)
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You can initialize in a class definition:
class Notebook {
long ram = 1048576;
String name = new String(“IBM”);
float price = 1995.00;
Battery bat = new Battery();
Disk d; // a null reference
int i = f();
:
}
Constructors Again
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You can have both class initialization and constructor
initialization:
class Counter {
int i = 1;
Counter() { i = 7; }
Counter(int j) { };
:
The order of initialization follows the order of the
initialization statements in the class definition.
It’s done before any constructor initialization, so it may be
done twice (as Counter illustrates).
Static Member Initialization
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Same story; primitives get zero unless initialized,
references get null unless initialized.
Static initialized either
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when the first object of the type is created, or
at the time of the first use of the variable.
If you never use it, it’s never initialized.
Final
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Means that the value cannot be modified
If a variable was defined as final, its
initialization should be either in:
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The Definition statement
Or, in each constructor
Final static: like defining a constant in C++. It
should be initialized on definition time.
Add toString() to Class A
class A {
int i;
int j;
public String toString() {
return new String(“I = " + i + “, j = “ + j);
//Or
// return “” + i;
// but not:
// return i;
}
}
Example of a Simple Time Class
public class Time {
int hour;
int minute;
int second;
Time() { setTime(0, 0, 0); }
Time(int h) { setTime(h, 0, 0); }
Time(int h, int m) { setTime(h, m, 0); }
Time(int h, int m, int s) { setTime(h, m, s); }
Time Class (cont.)
Time setTime(int h, int m, int s) {
setHour(h);
setMinute(m);
setSecond(s);
return this;
}
Time setHour(int h) {
hour = (( h >= 0 && h < 24 ) ? h : 0 );
return this;
}
Time Class (cont.)
Time setMinute(int m) {
minute = (( m >= 0 && m < 60 ) ? m : 0 );
return this;
}
Time setSecond(int s) {
second = ((s >= 0 && s < 24 ) ? s : 0 );
return this;
}
int getHour() { return hour; }
int getMinute() { return minute; }
int getSecond() { return second; }
Time Class (cont.)
public String toString() {
return (( hour == 12 || hour == 0 ) ? 12 : hour % 12 ) +
":" + ( minute < 10 ? "0" : "" ) + minute +
":" + ( second < 10 ? "0" : "" ) + second +
( hour < 12 ? " AM" : " PM" ) ;
}
}
Time Class Driver
public class TestTime {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Time t1 = new Time();
Time t2 = new Time(20, 3, 45);
t1.setHour(7).setMinute(32).setSecond(23);
System.out.println("t1 is " + t1);
System.out.println("t2 is " + t2);
}
}